Sticks and Stones
by LossXLove
Summary: Sakura was fine. Sasuke had abandoned her and Naruto had been gone for two and a half years, but she was fine. Mostly.


Six Things To Do Every Day

**MAKE THE BED!****  
**

Tidiness begets tidiness. A crisply made bed makes the whole room seem more orderly, which makes it less likely that you'll let other things – such as clothes and papers – pile up around it.

**MANAGE CLUTTER!****  
**

Whenever you leave a room, take a quick look around for anything that isn't where it should be. Pick it up and put it where it belongs. Insist that everyone in the household do the same.

**SORT THE MAIL!****  
**

Take a few minutes to open, read, and sort mail as soon as you bring it inside. Keep a trash bin near your sorting area for junk mail. Drop other mail into one of four in-boxes: personal correspondence, bills, catalogs, and filing.

**CLEAN AS YOU COOK!****  
**

Instead of filling the sink with pots and dishes, wash them or put them in the dishwasher as you prepare a meal.

**WIPE UP SPILLS WHILE THEY'RE FRESH!****  
**

Whether it's tomato sauce on the cooktop or makeup on the bathroom counter, almost anything is faster and easier to remove if you attend to it immediately.

**SWEEP THE KITCHEN FLOOR!****  
**

Every evening once you're finished washing up after dinner, sweep the floor. This will keep tough-to-clean dirt and grime from building up, which will make the weekly mopping much quicker.

I sighed shallowly, flipping past the article in the magazine. It was a nice idea, and things did tend to get a little hectic in my house, but why even try? The first item on the list was already nixed as an option, considering it was two in the afternoon. Plus I was sunbathing on my apartment's roof.  
'W_hy did Ino even bring this stupid magazine? This was not supposed to be Feel-Guilty-Because-You're-Not-SuzyHomemaker time.' _ I tossed the cheap literature aside(the other articles were no better,) squinting a bit at the change in light. Even with sunglasses on, the Kohana sun is bright, especially in the dog days of summer. I picked up lasts months never opened edition of _Kohana Teen _to shade my face and peered over at my best friend. In her deep purple bandeau bikini, her body was something to be jealous about. Her face, however, was another matter. She had taken my idea of using a magazine to block the sun's rays and decided that she was to lazy to actually hold it up. Instead, her nose was in the seam of a thumbed through weapons catalouge.

"Oi, Ino-pig!" I called, shaking her toned tricep.

"What Sakura?" She mumbled back, obviously having been napping. I felt a little bad about waking her up, but not to much. She quickly got over her drowsiness, bending up at the waist. The angle caused the catalogue to slide off. What it left behind was a face with clear, lightly tanned complection, rose tinted cheeks, a cute nose, and bright aqua eyes that were currently tinted brown by the Aviators she was wearing. Her bangs, so long that they normally obscured half of her face, were pinned back into a pouf, and the long ends were pulled back with the rest of her hair into a messy bun. In short, Ino had a face to match her body. Friggin' perfect.

"Why did you buy this stupid magazine?" I asked, pointing to the offending material "All it is is 'Turn Coat-hangers Into Wall Decor' and other stuipid crap like that."

Ino groaned. "I know, it was a dumb impulse. Those cupcakes on the front looked really good, but apparently you need four years of culinary training to make the frosting." She rose from the lawn chair, folding 'Blades and Bombs' neatly with one hand. "I tried to make those stupid coat hanger things. Theres a tangled mess of wire in my closet right now, but I may have accidentally made the basic ball shape they mentioned."

Ino wouldn't usually have mentioned that bit, so I decided to help her out. "You wanna go try to fix it?" I raised a brow as I said this, to allow for it to be taken as humor. Ino nodded mutely, suddenly looking defeated. I allowed my worry to briefly wrinkle my brow. She was usually more of the happy-go-lucky type.

* * *

The bent silver coat hangers resembled squashed sea urchins more than anything. I didn't have the heart to tell Ino that, but her Yanamaka blood picked up on my slight shift in footing. She sighed, wordlessly closing the closet. We shopped for the next two hours, searching for the perfect party dresses. Umio Hesaiton, the daughter of a high ranking civilian council member, was having a Super-Sweet-Sixteen bash, and all the important clans teenage children, plus one guest, were invited. Ino, of course, chose me as her plus one. I sensed that Ino's heart really wasn't in it and tried to be twice as enthusiastic to make up for it. It seemed fake and awkward to both of us, but eventually we left with clothes. Ino bought a peach colored dress with a high neckline, drop waist, and a slit up the center of the back. I purchased a strapless navy blue dress with a sweetheart neckline and decorative bronze zipper up the back. I only bought it because Ino had said it would match my hair. It was the only real opinion she shared, so I was eager to agree with her.

* * *

Ino picked me up about five minuted before the party started. We walked at civilian speed to the venue. There were already a lot of people in the house, and music was pumping out of two speakers, but not at a level that would burst an eardrum. We opened the cream door without knocking, and saw the mass of teens, mostly civilian, dancing to the fast beat of the pop song playing. There was a staircase that went up the opposite wall, where most of the ninja were hanging out, casually sipping on drinks from small necked bottles. The wide mouths of red plastic cups are to easy to slip something into. Even at a party, the awareness that comes from being a shinobi never leaves you. I saw Nenji casually slip his thumb over his bottle as soon as it left his lips.

Ino and I walked quickly through the throng of civilians, reaching the stairs fairly quickly. She walked about halfway up then flung herself onto the railing, still managing to look uneniably attractive. Her hair was in her standard ponytail, but it had been curled as one single lock. I stopped myself from furrowing my brow. Ino was acting strange. Really strange. It wouldn't be good to let the others know though. If they were close enough, then they should be able to pick up on Ino's behavior without my help. I silently accepted a bottle fro Choji, easily flicking the top of with one finger. The carbonated drink stung, but it wasn't unbearable.

Ino and I left early. I wasn't planning on having any fun, and watching the mass of grinding teens wasn't cheering Ino up. She left me at her house, but I made an impulsive decision to go on a late night walk. I wasn't actively thinking about where I was going, and ended upon a main road that led out of Konohana. The thought of leaving briefly crossed my mind, but there were guards, and I would have to show them a document I didn't have on my person at the moment. It wasn't worth going home just to enjoy the slight change in greenery. I plodded along to the gate, pausing for a fraction of a second before turning around. A sudden wave of sleepiness rolled over me. I guess those three beers affected me more than I thought. Lightweight.

The nearly full moon cast the shadow of the impressive gate onto about thirty feet of road. Most of my body was bathed in moonlight, but most of my calves and feet were still trapped in the shadow when I stopped. There was something in the forested area to my left. I cursed my stupidity and sent chakra to my liver, to speed up the rate that it broke down alcohol. What I found was terrifying. There was no alcohol in my system. This tiredness was not normal. The moon was new last week. The noise was getting louder. I couldn't move my feet from the shadow, which had changed into a tar-like, viscus liquid. The noise was deafening now. It sounded like a cloud of angry wasps had managed to burrow into my brain. I was aware that this was a genjutsu, but I couldn't concentrate enough to break it. I passed out.

* * *

A man, about six feet tall, closed his eye once he saw the pink haired woman collapse. He stepped off the branch he was on, landing smoothly on the ground and walking over to the female. He bent slightly, reaching one hand out to pick her up by the waist of her dress. Her Anko-style hair had loosened when she had hit the ground, and it fell out compleatly when she was raised off of it. He placed her on his shoulder and picked up the hair-clip that was lying, open, on the ground. He slipped it into his pocket and glided swiftly out of the village gate, which he could see had a gaping hole blasted through it.

A/N: Okay, this is going to maybe be a rant. What is up with "Innner Sakura?" I hate it! The mangaka used that to show that Sakura hid what she really felt from Sasuke. For example, when Naruto was setting up the chalkboard eraser on the door, Sakura said something along the lines of "You're stupid, that prank is stupid, Sasuke-kun I love you." and the "Inner Sakura" said something like "Cha! I love this kind of stuff!" I don't think Sakura really has SPD, she was just immature in the beginning of the manga and wanted to look cool in front of Sasuke by agreeing with him. (Sasuke said something like "A jonin would never fall for that kind of prank.") I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I think people are taking an authors attempt to show another side of a character and blowing it waaaayy out of proportion.


End file.
